The
only true "film noir" ever directed by a woman, this
tour de force thriller (considered by many, including Lupino
herself, to be her best film) is a classic, tension-packed,
three-way dance of death about two middle-class American homebodies
(Edmond O'Brien and Frank Lovejoy) on vacation in Mexico on
a long-awaited fishing trip. Suddenly their car and their very
lives are commandeered by psychopathic serial killer Emmett
Myers (William Talman). The striking light/dark contrasts, the
stunning compositions (the two kidnap victims separated by a
narrow stream from a gun-cradling madman with a bum eye) and
the spatial integrity of a determining sense of locale (the
pitiless topography of a rock-bound, horizonless Mexico over
which hovers an ever-present doom) all contribute mightily to
this fascinating character-study. The film is based on the true
story of Billy Cook, a psychopathic murderer .